by Jeffrey M. McCall
projo.com

NETWORK-TELEVISION executives hope their upcoming midseason replacements and specials will boost sagging viewership numbers. The network execs, however, mistakenly think they can somehow get better results with program lineups that just keep spitting out tired and unimaginative formulas.

The viewing public has moved beyond network television. The big four broadcast networks now get less than half of all viewers each evening, the rest finding cable fare more interesting. Network erosion has grown in recent years and continued during the fall season, with the major networks losing 7 percent of their average audience. That’s about 3 million viewers lost in the last year, most never to return. Cable viewing has increased by a double-digit percentage.

It was easy to blame the writers’ strike last year as the cause of network deterioration, but in reality, the drift has been going on for several years, and post-strike programming has failed to ignite viewer interest. Network television will never again dominate the evening entertainment choices of Americans.

The conversion to digital broadcasting will further damage network numbers. More than a third of viewers who previously watched only over-the-air broadcasting are picking up cable or satellite television in advance of the February transition, rather than to bother with ... READ FULL STORY